ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

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    Mobile phone addiction and depression: Multiple mediating effects of social anxiety and attentional bias to negative emotional information
    HOU Juan, ZHU Yingge, FANG Xiaoyi
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (4): 362-373.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00362
    Abstract22134)   HTML4021)    PDF(pc) (892KB)(29452)       Save

    Depression is an important and widely studied measure of individual psychological and social adaptation. Previous studies have explored the mechanism of depression from various perspectives and found that addiction is a significant risk factor for the development of depression. In recent years, with the rapid development of mobile Internet technology and smart phones, researchers have found that mobile phone addiction, as another important aspect of behavioral addiction, also has a potential impact on depression. Further studies have found that mobile-addicted individuals spend too much time and energy in the virtual world, thus leading to social anxiety. In addition, when social anxiety is so high that it affects the daily life of individuals, individuals are prone to suffer depressive symptoms. According to the cognitive behavioral model of social anxiety and emotional consistent effect, attentional bias to negative information is a key factor in maintaining the anxiety state among individuals with social anxiety. When an individual experiences social anxiety, they will pay more attention to negative information. Depression cognitive theory also posits that attentional bias to negative emotional information is closely related with the occurrence, development and maintenance of depression.
    Therefore, social anxiety and attentional bias to negative emotional information may be important factors in the effects of mobile phone addiction on depression. This study integrated emotional and cognitive factors and explored the effects of social anxiety and attentional bias to negative emotional information on the relationship between mobile phone addiction on depression through two studies. For study 1, a sample of 545 college students completed the Mobile Phone Addiction Index, Beck Depression Inventory and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. For study 2, 51 college students were selected to complete questionnaires and a 2 (Emotional types of paired facial expressions: negative, neutral) × 2 (Detection point position: same as negative emotional face expression, different from negative emotional face expression) within-subjects task to investigate the serial mediating effects of social anxiety and attentional bias to negative emotional information on the relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression.
    All the data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 and Mplus 8.3. Some valuable results were obtained as follows. (1) There were significant positive correlations among mobile phone addiction, social anxiety and depression. Social anxiety fully mediated the effect of mobile phone addiction on depression. (2) Social anxiety and attentional bias to negative emotional information serially mediated the relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression. However, attentional bias to negative emotional information did not significantly mediate the effect of mobile phone addiction on depression. Specifically, mobile phone addiction affects depression through two pathways: one is the separate mediating role of social anxiety; the other is the serial mediation pathway of social anxiety → attentional bias to negative emotional information.
    This study expands previous research on mobile phone addiction and individual psychological adaptation, enriches the field of addiction and depression research, and has significance regarding the reduction or control of the negative effects of addiction on depression. Additionally, this study also provides evidence for causal inference that social anxiety and attentional bias can alter depression levels, suggesting that attentional bias training is likely to be a promising alternative therapy for depression and providing new ideas for the intervention and treatment of clinical mental disorders.

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     Mobile phone addiction and sleep quality in adolescents: Mediation and moderation analyses
    LIU Qingqi, ZHOU Zongkui, NIU Gengfeng, Fan Cuiying
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2017, 49 (12): 1524-1536.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.01524
    Abstract17264)      PDF(pc) (509KB)(25077)       Save
     Mobile phones have integrated into people’s daily lives. Proper mobile phone use would help individuals meet diverse needs in learning and shopping, as well as in recreation and communication. However, the problem that more and more people are getting addicted to mobile phones has been salient. Studies have revealed that mobile phone addiction would bring about significant adverse impacts on mental health such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation. Poor sleep quality is also one of the major undesirable outcomes of mobile phone addiction. Research documented that mobile phone addiction significantly predicted sleep quality, and sleep quality deteriorated with increasing level of mobile phone addiction. Prior studies have focused mainly on the direct association between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality, however, little is known about the underlying mediating mechanism (i.e. how mobile phone addiction influences sleep quality) and moderating mechanism (i.e. when mobile phone addiction influences sleep quality). To address these gaps, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality in adolescents since both the use rate of mobile phone and the occurrence rate of mobile phone addiction are very high among adolescents. Specifically, the present study would examine the mediating role of affect balance in the relation between mobile phone addiction and sleep quality of adolescents, and test whether the direct effect and the indirect effect would be moderated by rumination and mindfulness. A sample of 1258 high school students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires measuring their mobile phone addiction, sleep quality, affect balance, rumination and mindfulness. All the measures showed good reliability and validity in the present study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 and the SPSS macro PROCESS which was specifically developed for assessing the complex models including both mediators and moderators. The results were as followings: (1) After controlling for gender and grade, mobile phone addiction significantly exerted direct effect on sleep quality and indirect effect on sleep quality through the mediation of affect balance. (2) Both the direct effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality and the indirect effect of affect balance were moderated by rumination, and these two effects were stronger in adolescents with high level of rumination. (3) Both the direct effect and the indirect effect of were moderated by mindfulness, and these two effects were weaker in adolescents with high level of mindfulness. The present study highlights the mediating role of affect balance and the moderating role of rumination and mindfulness in the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality. It may contribute to a better understanding of the effects as well as its paths and conditions of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality of adolescents. Moreover, it can also provide constructive suggestions for protecting and improving affect balance and sleep quality of adolescents in the mobile Internet era.
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     The influence of Chinese and English background pop music to the memory of Chinese and English words in Chinese undergraduates
    GAO Qi, BAI Xuejun
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (1): 1-8.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00001
    Abstract16710)      PDF(pc) (366KB)(24912)       Save
     It was generally found that pop music would do harm to the efficiency and accuracy of visual activity when it was as a kind of background music. This is called irrelevant sound effect, which means that the presence of irrelevant sound significantly impairs people’s performance on main visual task. Some researchers believe that the reason of this phenomenon is because the lyrics of the background pop music add extra workload to the working memory, which interferes with the visual task. Moreover, it was shown that the first language lyrics impaired participants’ performance more seriously than a strange language. To participants, the second language is less familiar than the first language but more than a strange language. So how about the irrelevant sound effect when lyrics are participants’ second language? And how about it when the visual task contains the second language? This study aimed to investigate the influence of different language lyrics to the visual memory task, the familiarity of whose materials was different in two experiments. It was hypothesized that there would be significant irrelevant sound effects in different language background musics with different language materials, and languages of the lyrics and materials would have reciprocal actions in both experiments. 180 participants from a university (90 for each experiment)who have passed CET6 (College English Test 6) attended this study to research the effect of lyrics in background pop music on short-term memory for familiar and unfamiliar Chinese and English words. There were three kinds of background sounds: no background sound, Chinese background pop music and English background pop music. In order to control effects caused by instruments, this research used Let it go sung by Yao Beina (Chinese) and Demi Lovato (English) as the background music in both two experiments. Only the refrain was used as music materials. In the first experiment, participants should remember 32 Chinese and 32 English familiar nouns and finish an instant recall task. In the second experiment, participants should remember 10 unfamiliar Chinese and 10 unfamiliar English nouns and finish an instant recognition task. Memory materials were displayed by Eprime 1.0 randomly. In the first experiment, the main effect of music types was significant, F(2,87) = 15.67, p < 0.00, ηp⊃2; = 0.15. The scores in the condition of no background music (M = 14.12) were significantly higher than the other two conditions. Participants’ scores in English background pop music (M = 12.50) were significantly higher than that in Chinese background pop music (M = 10.30). In the second experiment, the results showed that the scores in the condition of no background sound (M = 6.87) were still significantly higher than the other two conditions (M = 6.03 for Chinese music, M = 5.83 for English music). F(2,87) = 4.69, p < 0.05, ηp⊃2; = 0.05. The difference between two experiments was a significant reciprocal action in the second experiment, F(2,87) = 19.23, p < 0.01, ηp⊃2; = 0.20. The scores in the condition of Chinese background pop music were higher when the materials were Chinese words (M = 7.03), and the scores in the condition of English background pop music were higher when the materials were English words (M = 6.93). The conclusion was that lyrics in background music would effect the main visual task no mater what kind of lyrics’ language was, but different familiarity of languages indeed had different influences on the efficiency and accuracy of the main task. When memory words were familiar, the familiar language of lyrics would do more harm to the memory. While the words were unfamiliar, which means the task was more difficult, lyrics would do more harm to the memory of words that with the same language. The level of difficulty of the task and the familiarity of lyrics’ language both can effect the memory, while the former is more important.
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    Influence of time stress on mood-congruent false memories
    ZHONG Yiping, ZHANG Wenjie, LI Yalei, FAN Wei
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (9): 929-939.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00929
    Abstract15089)   HTML873)    PDF(pc) (517KB)(18731)       Save

    A large number of studies have revealed that memories not only easily fade away but also can occasionally be changed spontaneously; memory errors are everywhere, reminding us that memories are not an exact copy of the experienced events. The influences of the various types of stimulus and emotional states on false memories were first studied by using the classical DRM paradigm. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of time stress on mood-congruent false memories.
    The first experiment was performed to identify the influences of different emotional stimuli on false memories under time pressure. The hybrid design method was used, namely, 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 3 (word titer: positive word, negative word, and neutral word). The between-subject variable was time pressure, the within-subject variable was word titer, and the dependent variable was the number of the false recognitions of the critical lures. The results of experiment 1 showed that the main effect was remarkable under time stress, as was the valence of words. The interaction between the time stress and valence of words was significant. The results demonstrated that the number of false recognitions for the subjects in the stress group with respect to the negative critical lures was much higher than were those of the neutral and positive ones.
    The second experiment sought to uncover the influences of different emotional states on the false memory under time pressure. The design method of 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 3 (emotion titer: positive emotion group, negative emotion group, and neutral group) was used, and the dependent variable was the number of the false recognitions of the critical lures. The results of experiment 2 showed that the main effect was marginally significant under the time stress, and the emotion was significant. The interaction between time stress and emotion was significant. The results revealed that the false recognition for the subjects in the positive emotion group with respect to the critical lures had the largest number.
    The third experiment utilized the hybrid design method of 2 (time stress: stress group and control group) × 4 (mood type: positive mood-congruency, negative mood-congruency, positive mood-inconsistency, and negative mood-inconsistency) to investigate the influences of time pressure on mood-congruent false memories, demonstrating that both the pressure group and the control group subjects showed a significant mood-congruent false memory. The results of experiment 3 showed that the number of false recognitions with respect to the mood-congruency for the subjects in the stress group and the control group were both higher than that of the mood-inconsistency, and the stress group had a larger number of false recognitions than did the control group under the condition of mood-congruency.
    The results of three experiments show that time pressure has a positive effect on false memories and further promotes negative mood-consistency false memories. Individual negative emotions can undermine the generation of false memories under time pressure.

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    The influence of shame on deceptive behavior: The role of self-control
    FAN Wei, REN Mengmeng, XIAO Junze, JIAN Zengdan, DU Xiaoming, FU Xiaolan
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (9): 992-1006.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00992
    Abstract14262)   HTML883)    PDF(pc) (1000KB)(18590)       Save

    Shame, as a typical moral emotion, has an influence on individual behavior that is both complex and controversial. Previous studies have found that shame produces both an unpleasant experience and a moral emotion that encourages individuals to produce positive behaviors. In recent years, Hooge’s research has proceeded from the perspective of motivation. He believes that, no matter how shame makes individuals perform, their motivation is to restore and protect the damaged self. Therefore, based on Hooge's theory, this research will examine this typical immoral behavior as an example to discuss the impact of shame upon it and its ways.

    In this study, students from a university were randomly selected as participants, and the number of each experiment’s participants was arranged according to the experimental requirements. Questionnaires and behavioral experiments were used throughout the experiment, and the experimental procedures were completed in accordance with the regulations of each experiment. The requirements for each experiment were different and the procedures for conducting the experiment were different. The statistical methods of the study were also based on the requirements of each experiment.

    Experiment 1 examines whether shame has an effect on deceptive behavior. Its results show that the number and tendency of deception in the shamed group were significantly lower than in the control group. To more fully explore the impact of shame on deceptive behavior in different contexts, Experiment 2 improved upon the deficiencies of Experiment 1 and divided shame situations into two types: moral anomie and lack of ability. It was found that the number of deceptions in the moral anomie shamed group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the number of deceptions in the lack of ability shamed group was significantly higher than that in the control group. To examine the specific methods and mechanisms of shame in affecting deception, we propose that shamed individuals increase their self-control resources and, thus, reduce the theory of fraud. Experiment 3a examined the impact of shame on self-control resources and found that the self-control resources of the shamed group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Experiment 3b explored the specific mechanisms of shame affecting deceptive behavior. It was found that self-control resources played a complete mediating role in the process of shame in affecting deception.

    In summary, these findings suggest that shame can deter deception under certain conditions. The condition is that shame is caused by moral disorder rather than lack of ability; the mechanism of shame in affecting behavior may be: Individuals who feel shame will restore and protect the damaged moral self by mobilizing more self-control resources to influence behavior.

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    Mediating roles of gratitude, social support and posttraumatic growth in the relation between empathy and prosocial behavior among adolescents after the Ya’an earthquake
    WANG Wenchao, WU Xinchun
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2020, 52 (3): 307-316.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00307
    Abstract14106)   HTML1271)    PDF(pc) (646KB)(19970)       Save

    Empathy refers to the traits, or tendencies, of a person to affectively experience emotions of concern at the suffering of others and to cognitively adopt another person’s perspective. Possession of empathy has been assumed to encourage prosocial behavior. The mechanisms by which empathy affects prosocial behavior for adolescent survivors of disaster, however, are unclear. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) was considered a common positive change following trauma events and was identified as having a high prevalence rate in various trauma types. After experiencing natural disasters, individuals with high empathy are more vulnerable to their adverse environment and the traumatic situations of others. This results in more psychological pressure and fear, and these pressures and negative emotions force individuals to think about the meaning of trauma, thus promoting the generation of PTG. The emergence of PTG brings positive behavioral change among survivors after the disaster. Therefore, it was suggested that empathy may exert indirect effects on prosocial behavior through PTG.
    According to current theories, empathy has different emotional and cognitive components. When individuals empathize with others, these components are activated, which may lead to gratitude and, in turn, result in prosocial behavior. As a moral barometer, gratitude informs the beneficiary that a benefactor has bestowed a gift. The prosocial behavior of a benefactor toward a beneficiary is thought to produce gratitude within the beneficiary. This then stimulates the beneficiary’s prosocial behavior, further strengthening the benefactor’s own prosocial behavior.
    Furthermore, traumatized survivors with greater empathy may improve communication with others, increase the sense of intimacy, and perceive more support from others—meaning that empathy may lead individuals to have more social support. Social support refers to an individual’s perception of the support provided by others. That perception can be influenced by gratitude. Adolescents with low social support are more likely to interpret other people’s ambiguous actions as aggressive. Thus, stable social relationships seem to promote PTG and prosocial behavior. Taken together, it is possible that empathy can promote prosocial behavior through gratitude, social support, and PTG in post-disaster contexts. The utility of these predictions, however, was unclear.
    To examine the relation between empathy, gratitude, social support, PTG and prosocial behavior, this study used an interpersonal reactivity index scale, gratitude questionnaire, social support questionnaire, posttraumatic growth inventory and prosocial behavior questionnaire to assess 542 adolescents following Ya’an earthquake. The results indicated that after controlling the trauma exposure, empathy have a positive association with prosocial behavior through the following routes: three one-mediator paths of gratitude, social support and PTG, respectively; three two-mediator paths of gratitude via PTG, social support via PTG and gratitude via social support, and one three-mediator path from gratitude to PTG via social support. These findings suggested that following a natural disaster, adolescent survivors’ empathy may have an indirect and positive relation with prosocial behavior by gratitude, social support and PTG.

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    Neural mechanism underlying the effects of object color on episodic memory
    ZHOU Wenjie, DENG Liqun, DING Jinhong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (3): 229-243.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00229
    Abstract13564)   HTML2377)    PDF(pc) (1154KB)(21334)       Save

    Color diagnosticity is the degree to which a color is associated with or symbolizes a particular object. Typical color is often associated with high color diagnostic objects and activates the visual (perceptual) or semantic (conceptual) knowledge in long-term memory. However, the relationship between different processing levels (perceptual and conceptual) of object color information and episodic memory retrieval components (familiarity and recollection) remains poorly understood. It is hypothesized that color information can facilitate memory encoding at the perceptual level but inhibit it at the conceptual level. In recognition retrieval, color has a greater impact on familiarity and recollection at the perceptual level, while at the conceptual level, recollection is more affected than familiarity.

    In the present study, event-related potential (ERP) and a study-test paradigm were used to investigate the effects of color consistency (visual color input and object color knowledge) on episodic memory encoding and retrieval by using pictures and names of objects with high color diagnosticity. Twenty-seven college students participated in experiment 1. During the study phase, a picture of an object in its diagnostic color (such as a red apple) or non-diagnostic color (purple banana) was presented on a white background for 500ms. The participants were asked to determine whether the color of the object in each picture was consistent with its actual (diagnostic) color. During the test phase, participants provided old/new judgments about the objects that had appeared in the study phase and the equal number of new items. Twenty-five college students participated in the experiment. A similar procedure was used for experiment two, except that items were the names of the objects in their diagnostic or non-diagnostic color rather than pictures. During both experiments, the participants responded by pressing a mouse button. Their reaction time and EEG (electroencephalography) were recorded.

    The results of experiment 1 showed that, during the encoding phase, color-inconsistent objects were identified less accurately and more slowly, and this triggered a larger N400 than the color-consistent ones. During the retrieval phase the color-consistent objects were recalled more quickly and accurately, and this triggered larger FN400 (frontal negativity) values than the color-inconsistent objects. However, the opposite effects were observed in experiment 2. Color-inconsistent object names were identified more quickly and accurately, and they elicited the same ERP wave as the color-consistent names. During the recognition stage, the color had an effect only during the period of late positive components (LPCs).

    In conclusion, color was found to have different effects on encoding and retrieval of episodic memory at both perceptual and semantic levels. (1) Color had different effects on item coding at the perceptual and semantic levels. Color consistency was found to help the viewer identify objects at the perceptual level, but it hindered object identification at the semantic level. (2) Color congruence was here found to promote familiarity and recollection in object retrieval (perceptual level), but it only improved recollection of an object’s name (conceptual level). (3) The consistency effect in the processing of object name recognition showed that color is closely related to object name, and it also affects the semantic representation of objects, which further supports the spreading activation model.

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    The effect of emotion on directed forgetting for continuous events
    REN Xiaoyun, LI Yuting, MAO Weibin, GENG Qiuchen
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (3): 269-279.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00269
    Abstract12377)   HTML519)    PDF(pc) (1124KB)(15054)       Save

    Forgetting is an adaptive process that can limit the interferences from irrelevant distractors and update valuable information. With regard to negative events, intentional forgetting can effectively help us to recover from trauma. The research on the intentional forgetting of emotional information usually adopts the directed forgetting paradigm. The better memory performance of R items relative to F items is referred to as the typically directed forgetting effect. Although emotional information is thought to be easier to remember than neutral information because of the attentional capture and elaborative process, whether emotional information is more resistant to forgetting is obscured. Most studies on emotional directed forgetting used various discrete items, such as words and pictures, and few addressed continuous events that are actually common in our episodic memory. Directed forgetting is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon because specific and general information appears to be forgotten at different rates. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of emotions on the directed forgetting effect of continuous events. This study also explores the differences in forgetting rates between general/gist memory and specific memory.
    In the present study, we adopted the event directed paradigm that embeds memory instructions into continuous videos. In experiment 1, 36 participants were equally divided into two groups: one group watched a neutral video, and the other group watched a negative one. Each video contained nine R segments and nine F segments that were surrounded by green and purple borders. The colored borders acted as memory instructions. The participants were asked to remember the video segments when the border was green and to forget the video segments when the border was purple. The test phase involved free recall and recognition. The participants were requested to recall all information about the video regardless of the classification of the memory instruction (R or F segments). Then, the participants were asked to identify the old pictures among the distractors. The old pictures were taken from the studied videos, and the distractors were slightly similar to the old pictures. The participants’ responses were classified as general/gist memory and specific memory on the basis of previous studies. In experiment 2, we disrupted the play order of segments to further explore the influence of continuity on the directed forgetting effect.
    The results of experiment 1 showed that the directed forgetting effect was lower in the negative video than in the neutral video. In addition, the participants demonstrated good memory for the general/gist information of the negative video in free recall. In the recognition phase, no directed forgetting effect was observed for specific memory in the negative video. The result indicated that emotions impaired or eliminated directed forgetting for continuous events. However, the performance of the gist-only memory for the R and F segments was not significant in the neutral and negative videos. Therefore, we speculated that the sequential play of segments might have led to the possibility of participants correctly guessing the general gist of the content. Therefore, we disrupted the order of segments in experiment 2, and the results showed a typically directed forgetting effect for gist-only memory.
    In conclusion, directed forgetting could appear in continuous events. However, emotions impair the directed forgetting effect for a specific memory. For gist-only memory, the directed forgetting effect is affected by the continuity of events.

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    The impact of gender orientation of names on individuals’ evaluation of impressions and interpersonal interaction
    ZUO Bin, LIU Chen, WEN Fangfang, TAN Xiao, XIE Zhijie
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (4): 387-399.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00387
    Abstract12343)   HTML1703)    PDF(pc) (703KB)(18047)       Save

    People can infer personal traits from names and, thus, the impressions of an individual can be influenced by how others perceive his or her name. Previous research has found that people have a distinctive perception of masculine and feminine names. This raises an interesting question: How do people evaluate individuals with opposite gender-oriented names, and how will this evaluation affect interpersonal interaction based on the main two dimensions of social cognition (i.e., warmth and competence). To answer these questions, the first aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of warmth and competence of names within the Chinese context and examine the effects of an individual’s gender and name-gender orientation on impression formation. The second aim was to explore the behavioral aftereffects of evaluation of impressions based on individual’s names.
    Four studies were conducted to explore the research questions. In Study 1, a total of 100 masculine and feminine names were presented to 176 undergraduate students who were asked to rate these names according to four traits: two traits for each dimension of warmth and competence. In Study 2, 121 undergraduate participants were presented with information about target genders and names. Participants were asked to rate these targets based on warmth and competence. In Study 3a, 136 undergraduate participants were presented with two targets that had masculine or feminine names within the context of imagining going on a trip with them. Furthermore, in Study 3b, 131 undergraduate participants were asked to imagine that they would meet two individuals with different names within the context of finishing a difficult task. Participants in Study 3a and Study 3b were then asked to evaluate these individuals based on their warmth and competence traits and choose one of them as their partner to complete the corresponding activities.
    The results were as follows: (1) Feminine names were rated higher on warmth than masculine names, and masculine names were rated higher on competence than feminine names; (2) Individuals with gender-consistent names were considered to have the typical characteristics of their gender: women with feminine names were perceived as warmer than women with masculine names, and men with masculine names were perceived more competent than men with feminine names; (3) Individuals with gender-inconsistent names were considered to have the characteristics of the opposite sex: men with feminine names were perceived less competent than women with masculine names, whereas women with masculine names were perceived less warm than men with feminine names; (4) Participants intended to make friends with women whose names were consistent with their gender, and the perception of warmth completely mediated the effect of name-gender orientation on willingness to interact; and 5) Participants preferred to finish difficult tasks with men whose names were consistent with their gender, and the perception of competence completely mediated the effect of name gender orientation on willingness to cooperate.
    This is the first study to explore how gender and name gender orientation affect individuals’ impressions by applying stereotype content in China. We examined the influence of name gender orientation on individuals’ perceptions about others, as well as their behavior intention and mechanism, from the perspective of the perceiver’s motivation. This study provides new theoretical explanations and empirical support for impression evaluation and interpersonal interaction based on names, and has important implications for future research on the social cognition of names. Further studies should explore the content of gender-ambiguous names and their effects on individuals’ impressions and behavioral aftereffects. The effects of emotional and cognitive processes on names and interpersonal interaction should also be assessed.

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     Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The halo effect and generalization effect in the facial attractiveness evaluation
    HAN Shangfeng, LI Yue, LIU Shen, XU Qiang, TAN Qun, ZHANG Lin
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (4): 363-376.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00363
    Abstract12242)      PDF(pc) (719KB)(14877)       Save
     Even though people usually agreed that “a book should not be judged by its cover”, researches had repeatedly demonstrated that individuals spontaneously and very swiftly formed impression on others based merely on the appearance of their faces. Facial attractiveness is an important content in the first perception. Which had been linked to outcomes as diverse as mate choice, job hunting, and cooperation. Given these real world consequences of the first impressions, it is important to understand how these impressions are formed. Some studies found that facial physical characteristics, such as symmetry, averageness and sexual dimorphism, had a great impact on facial attractiveness. While different individuals have different experience, when faced with the same face in the same context, different individuals have different evaluations on facial attractiveness. Some researchers put forward a new theory, namely, the observer hypothesis, which demonstrated that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, the processing of unfamiliar facial attractiveness remained unclear. The goal of the current study was to explore how we processed the impression of unfamiliar facial attractiveness. 19 males and 27 females took part in the experiment one and 16 males and 22 females participated in the experiment two, each experiment contained two phases that were learning tasks and evaluation tasks. In the learning phase, participants firstly learned to associate faces with negative, neutral, or positive trait words or imaged the behavior of the individuals to form different impression, which was contribute to the same valence between the neutral face and trait words or sentence. When participants could evaluate the valence of the face correctly, they could proceed to the next phase. In the experiment one, 13 males and 25 females had passed learning phase and evaluated the original faces and the unfamiliar faces. In the experiment two, 12 males and 17 females had done the learning task and evaluation task successfully. And in the evaluation phase, extend of warmth, competence and facial attractiveness of the unfamiliar faces, which had 50% similarity with the learned faces, were evaluated. Both of the two experiments had the same results, which showed that there are two ways to form unfamiliar facial attractiveness: (1) the first one is that generalization effect occurred after halo effect, compared with negative familiar faces, positive familiar faces were evaluated more attractive, so did the unfamiliar faces that were familiar with positive familiar faces; (2) the second one is that halo effect occurred after generalization effect, unfamiliar faces which were similar with positive familiar faces were not only evaluated more positive but also more attractive. The results suggested that generalization effect occurred after halo effect and halo effect occurred after generalization effect were the two ways to form unfamiliar facial attractiveness. In conclusion, halo effect and generalization effect play an important role in the processing of unfamiliar facial attractiveness.
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    Measuring Adult Attachment: Chinese Adaptation of the ECR Scale
    Li-Tonggui,Kato-Kazuo
       2006, 38 (03): 399-406.  
    Abstract12190)      PDF(pc) (695KB)(11899)       Save
    To promote research on adult attachment in China, the “Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory (ECR)”, a scale widely used and considered as the "standard" one in USA, was adapted into Chinese. 371 college students in China were asked to respond to the scale along with Rosenberg’s self-esteem and Other-view scales for testing construct validities, and 59 of them to retake the scales 4 weeks later for testing temporal reliability. Of them, 231 who reported had/have had romantic experiences were selected to final analyses. As a result, this scale was demonstrated to have adequate reliabilities (internal and temporal consistency) and validities (construct and criterion-related)
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    Mindfulness training can improve 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function
    LI Quan, SONG Yanan, LIAN Bin, FENG Tingyong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2019, 51 (3): 324-336.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00324
    Abstract11823)   HTML569)    PDF(pc) (1069KB)(14117)       Save

    Mindfulness is a technique that alleviates the suffering of the yogi and implements self-awareness. Previous studies found that mindfulness training can improve work efficiency, emotional regulation, attention, and executive function. However, it is still unknown whether mindfulness training can improve attention and executive function in preschool children. This study sought to investigate the effect of mindfulness training for younger children to improve attention and executive function performance.
    The present study attempted to use a 2 (group: mindfulness training vs no-training) × 2 (test time:pre vs post) between-and-within-subjects design to investigate the effect of mindfulness training on improving 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function. The mindfulness training consisted of 12 sessions, with 20~30 minutes per session, and was held twice a week for two months involving 6 preschoolers at a time. The children were assigned to two groups, mindfulness group (N = 26, age range from 41.69 months to 51.42 months, SD = 1.12 months) and control group (N = 26, age range from 41.98 months to 53.98 months, SD = 3.60 months). In the mindfulness training group, the instructor guided children to perform activities of mindfulness, while children in the No-training group were given normal activities. In the study, the mindfulness training course consisted of three parts. Part 1 was “breath and attention” that children learned to master belly breathing and focused attention on specific sensory. Part 2 was “body perception and movement” that children gained balance awareness and body coordinates. Part 3 was “awareness of mental activity” that children learned to relax and perceive each body part. Children’s attention was measured before and after training using an attention task (e.g. Finding Animals Test), and three components of executive function were measured before and after training using three classic tasks (e.g. Inhibition Control: Peach Flower Heart Task, Cognitive Flexibility: Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (DCCS) and Working Memory: WPPSI-VI’s Picture Memory Test).
    To investigate whether mindfulness training can enhance children’s attention and executive function, we performed 2 (group: mindfulness training vs no-training) × 2 (test time: pretest vs posttest) repeated measures ANOVA. The results revealed that the interaction between group and test time was significant. An analysis of simple effects further indicated that in the pretest there was no significant effect between mindfulness training group and no-training group. In the posttest, the attention and two components of executive function performances (inhibition control and cognitive flexibility) improved significantly in mindfulness group, while no significant differences were found on attention and three components of executive function in no-training group. The results supported the usefulness of mindfulness training to enhance children’s performances on attention and executive function.
    In conclusion, our results suggested the positive effects of mindfulness training on two components of executive function (inhibition control and cognitive flexibility) and attention in preschool children. The results provided important theoretical and practical implications for 3-and 4-year-old children’s attention and executive function.

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     Access to awareness is improved by affective learning
    ZHANG Xiuling, PANG Zhaoyang, JIANG Yunpeng, ZHANG Ming, JIANG Yi
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (3): 253-259.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00253
    Abstract11309)      PDF(pc) (600KB)(15142)       Save
     Increasing evidence has indicated that emotional information, and particularly threatening visual input, elicits faster behavioral responses than non-threatening stimuli. This superior processing of threatening information is also found under conditions where consciousness is absent. However, recent studies found that faster unconscious detection of emotion-associated stimuli than neutral stimuli may be due to their unmatched physical characteristics, rather than by their emotional content. Thus, it is necessary to test whether emotional stimuli still have the processing advantage over neutral ones in unconscious conditions when low-level visual properties are matched. In order to investigate whether unconsciously prioritized processing still occurs with emotion-associated stimuli which are physically identical, we used the conditioning paradigm to manipulate the affective significance of Gabor patches. Participants performed two challenging visual detection tasks under the breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (b-CFS) paradigm. In experiment 1, differently oriented Gabor patches (45° and 135°) were used as material. During an initial learning phase, one oriented Gabor patch (e.g., 45°) was paired with an alarm sound (CS+), whereas the other was never paired with the alarm sound (CS–). The emotional rating indicated that negative emotion could be elicited by the alarm sound in the participants. The orientation of CS+ Gabor patches was counterbalanced across participants. In the subsequent testing phase, participants were required to discriminate the location of the Gabor patch relative to the central fixation as quickly and accurately as possible. In this phase, Gabor patches were suppressed by dynamic noise using b-CFS. The procedure in experiment 2 was the same with that in experiment 1, except that the color of the Gabor patches was also varied, between red and green. In experiment 1, there was no difference in the accuracy rates between CS+ stimuli and CS– stimuli (99% vs. 99%). Suppression time results showed that CS+ stimuli emerged from suppression faster than CS– ones. In experiment 2, there was no difference in the accuracy rates for different learning condition. For the analysis of suppression time, the “learning effect” was computed to represent difference between experimental conditions and control condition. Integrated learning showed a significant learning effect, while there was no remarkable learning effect in orientation learning or in color learning condition. These findings revealed an unconscious processing advantage for aversive conditioned stimuli. Furthermore, the learning effect was specific to the conditioned stimuli and could not generalize to other similar objects. Taken together, this study provided further evidence for the optimized processing of affectively significant visual stimuli in unconscious conditions.
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    The relationship between relative deprivation and online gaming addiction in college students: A moderated mediation model
    DING Qian, TANG Yun, WEI Hua, ZHANG Yongxin, ZHOU Zongkui
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (9): 1041-1050.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.01041
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    Online gaming is very popular among college students in China. Whereas low to moderate levels of online gaming may be entertaining and provide opportunities to interact with other players online, excessive gaming can lead to online gaming addiction and associated problems such as depression and anxiety. Prior studies have investigated the risk for online gaming addiction in terms of the ecological context in which addiction occurs. The present study has taken a further step by focusing on students’ perceptions of relative deprivation as a macrosystem influence on online gaming addiction. According to the cognitive-behavior model of Pathological Internet Use (PIU), the perception of relative deprivation may increase the risk for online gaming addiction by inducing negative thoughts and emotions or by increasing escape motivation. Importantly, the effect of relative deprivation may be mediated by maladaptive cognition; that is, the perception of relative deprivation may lead to maladaptive cognition, which in turn would predict online gaming addiction. Furthermore, individual differences in mindset may moderate this mediation process, in that entity theorists may be more vulnerable to maladaptive cognition than incremental theorists. In sum, we proposed a moderated mediation model to account for online gaming addiction. Specifically, we tested the relationship between relative deprivation and online gaming addiction, the mediating effect of maladaptive cognition, and the moderating effect of mindset, in a sample of college students.
    The participants of this study were 1,008 college students (mean age = 19.03 years, SD = 0.97 year; 795 males, 213 females) who had experience in online game playing. Their average time gaming was 1.74 hours (SD = 2.21 hours) per day in the past half year. The participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Financial Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Maladaptive Cognitions Scale, Implicit Person Theory Measure, and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale.
    The proposed moderated mediation model was tested using regression analysis and the PROCESS macro. Previous studies have suggested that online gaming addiction may differ by gender and age. Hence, the effects of gender and age were controlled in all analyses. Results showed that: (1) Relative deprivation positively predicted online gaming addiction in college students. (2) Maladaptive cognition partially mediated this association. (3) This mediating effect was moderated by student mindset, in that it was stronger for students who were entity theorists than for those who were incremental theorists.
    The present study is the first to demonstrate the detrimental impact of perceived relative deprivation and the moderated mediation effect of maladaptive cognition and mindset on online gaming addiction. Our findings provide further evidence of the role of ecological context in the risk for online gaming disorder. They also have potential applied value with regard to online gaming addiction in college students. Because incremental theory may be more helpful than entity theory for online gaming addicts, and because incremental theory can be learned through training, understanding students’ self-theories can inform the development of prevention and intervention programs for online gaming addiction.

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     Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in intervention for anxiety: A meta-analysis
    REN Zhihong, Zhang Yawen, JIANG Guangrong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2018, 50 (3): 283-305.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00283
    Abstract11031)      PDF(pc) (1297KB)(14226)       Save
     Mindfulness meditation (MM) has enjoyed a growing popularity in healthcare in recent years when bio-psycho-social approaches are becoming more and more emphasized in modern medicine. There has been mounting empirical evidence showing MM’s significant effectiveness in alleviating anxiety for both nonclinical and clinical populations. However, the effect size of the available empirical investigation results has remained inconsistent and possible moderators have yet to be explored comprehensively. In order to determine the immediate and long-term efficacy of MM in overcoming anxiety, we conducted a meta-analysis based on a systematic and comprehensive review of the published studies on mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety. We also examined whether some characteristics of research participants (e.g. age, geographic areas) and interventions (e.g. format, duration, at-home practice), and specifics of the study (i.e. types of control, quality of the study) and data analysis (e.g. attrition rate) moderate the magnitude of the effectiveness of MM interventions (11variables). The review was performed following the rigorous PRISMA Protocol. Published studies using randomized controlled trial were selected from major databases worldwide to include investigations conducted in both Western and Eastern countries. Databases used include VIP Journal Integration Platform, Wan fang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and PubMed. Keywords used are mindfulness, meditation, MBSR, MBCT, anxi*, mood, intervention, therapy, program. Using the random effect model, we pooled the effect size (Hedge’s g), and conducted a publication bias evaluation, a moderating effect analysis and an interaction analysis in CMA 3.3. Results of our analyses revealed fifty-five RCTs from both Eastern and Western countries (k = 68 samples, N = 4595 participants). Mindfulness meditation for treating anxiety is shown to be efficacious with a medium to large immediate effect (g = 0.60), but the effect is not reliably shown at follow-up assessments. The post-heterogeneity test result suggests that using the random effect model is reasonable. Univariate meta-regression analysis yielded that study quality, geographic areas, participants’ age, intervention format (Group vs. Individual), amount of at-home practice, and attrition rate shown in data analysis remarkably influenced the effect size of MM’s immediate effect, while types of control, health condition, mindfulness practice experience, intervention duration, or statistical analysis methods used (ITT vs. PP) did not appear to moderate MM’s immediate effectiveness for reducing anxiety. Additionally, geographic areas affect the effect size the most. Multiple meta-regression models suggested that type of control and geographic areas, as well as statistical analysis methods significantly moderate the effect size of intervention effectiveness. Overall, the study results demonstrated high immediate effect of mindfulness-based practices for alleviating anxiety, but the effect did not seem to last. In addition, geographic area turns out to be the strongest moderator, and practitioners in the East seem to benefit more than those who are in the West. Study quality, participants’ age, mindfulness practice experience, intervention format, at-home practice quantity and attrition rate also affect the effect size to a certain extent. Future research is warranted to improve methodological quality of outcome studies, to provide more clear and replicable evidence of MM efficacy, and to explore more underlying moderators for the intervention effect size, such as participant satisfaction and so forth.
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    Outstanding others vs. mediocre me: The effect of social comparison on uniqueness-seeking behavior
    GONG Xiushuang, ZHANG Honghong
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2020, 52 (5): 645-658.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00645
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    Uniqueness-seeking behavior can be driven by various factors. Despite the common phenomenon that better-off individuals seem to seek more uniqueness and express individuality more frequently, no researcher has investigated whether and how social comparison influences uniqueness-seeking behavior. According to the better-than-average effect, people tend to perceive themselves better off than the average on many important dimensions and are inclined to see themselves as unique when there are no social comparisons. Building on the compensatory consumption model, we aim to investigate the impact of social comparison on uniqueness-seeking behavior, and further examine why this effect occurs as well as when it will be attenuated or intensified.
    In social comparisons, comparing upwardly (vs. downwardly) may threaten individuals’ pervasively held better-than-average self-evaluation bias, which motivates them to adjust their self-evaluations downwardly to the average. Prior research suggests that the average is mostly seen as ordinary, mediocre and unexceptional. Therefore, we infer that people comparing upwardly may experience a decreased sense of uniqueness, which drives them to seek unique options in subsequent unrelated contexts. This effect holds for many dimensions, such as economic status. In that case, perceived economic mobility acts as an important moderator. We predict that when perceived economic mobility is high, threats induced by upward comparisons will be mitigated, as are individuals’ psychological and behavioral responses. However, when perceived economic mobility is low, the responses will be intensified.
    Across five experiments, we demonstrate that upward comparisons increase consumer preference for less popular scenic spots (Study 1). The psychological mechanism underlying this effect is that upward comparisons lower perceived uniqueness, leading individuals to choose minority-endorsed products to compensate for the negative self-discrepancy (studies 2a and 2c). The fundamental driving force of the main effect is that upward comparisons increase consumers’ uniqueness-seeking tendency (Study 2b). Furthermore, when comparing upwardly on economic status, consumers still show stronger preference for niche book clubs, and the effect of social comparison on perceived uniqueness and uniqueness seeking will be mitigated when perceived economic mobility is high but is strengthened when perceived economic mobility is low (Study 3).
    The present research provides evidence that upward comparisons can lead to uniqueness-seeking behavior by examining the mediating role of perceived uniqueness, supporting our basic premise that individuals perceive themselves as unique when making no comparisons. In doing this, we make theoretical contributions to research on both uniqueness seeking and the strategies for coping with upward comparisons. This also sheds light on marketing strategies that enterprises can employ to increase sales of unpopular or customized products as well as coping strategies that consumers can use to alleviate threats of upward comparisons on different dimensions.

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    The relationship between social media use and fear of missing out: A meta-analysis
    ZHANG Yali, LI Sen, YU Guoliang
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (3): 273-290.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00273
    Abstract10943)   HTML1660)    PDF(pc) (1153KB)(16824)       Save

    Social media use and fear of missing out are both common phenomena in our daily life. Numerous studies have discussed the relationship between these two variables, but the results were mixed. Theoretically, there are two main arguments about the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out. To be specific, the social cognitive theory of mass communication suggested that there was a significant positive correlation between the two variables, while the digital goldilocks hypothesis argued that there may be a U-shaped relationship instead of a significant linear correlation between the two. Empirically, the effect sizes of this relationship reported in the existing literature were far from consistent, with r values ranging from 0 to 0.75. Therefore, this meta-analysis was conducted to explore the strength and moderators of the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out.

    Through literature retrieval, 65 studies consisting of 70 independent effect sizes that met the inclusion criteria were selected. In addition, a random-effects model was selected to conduct the meta-analysis in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.3 software, aiming at testing our hypotheses. The heterogeneity test illustrated that there was significant heterogeneity among 70 independent effect sizes, indicating that the random-effects model was appropriate for subsequent meta-analyses. Based on the funnel plot and Egger’s test of regression to the intercept, no significant publication bias was found in the included studies.

    The main effect analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between social media use and fear of missing out (r = 0.38). The moderation analyses revealed that the relationship between social media use and fear of missing out was moderated by the indicator of social media use, as well as the type of social media. Specifically, compared with the frequency, the time as well as the intensity of social media use, social media use addiction had the strongest correlation with fear of missing out; compared with Snapchat and Facebook, Instagram had the strongest correlation with fear of missing out. Other moderators such as gender, age, measurement tools of fear of missing out as well as individualism index did not moderate the relation between these two constructs. The results supported the media effect model, which suggested that social media use, especially social media use addiction may be an important risk factor for individuals’ fear of missing out. Longitudinal studies are needed in the future to explore the dynamic relationship between social media use and fear of missing out.

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    The effects of the parent-child relationship and parental educational involvement on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation: The roles of defeat and meaning in life
    HU Yiqiu, ZENG Zihao, PENG Liyi, WANG Hongcai, LIU Shuangjin, YANG Qin, FANG Xiaoyi
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2023, 55 (1): 129-141.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.00129
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    Because of their high incidence as well as high risk, adolescent psychological problems have been a constant pressing topic of governmental, psychological, sociological, and medical interest for research. Adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation not only have serious impacts on an individual social functioning, the burden of disease and economic pressures caused by self-harming incidents also make it vital to explore the factors affecting these behaviors and their developmental mechanisms. Ecosystem theory emphasizes the role and significance of the environment in the process of individual development, believing that individual development is the result of one’s interactions with the surrounding environment. As the innermost structure in the ecosystem, family is the environment that is most relevant for individuals, having the greatest influence. In this study, two important components of the parent-child subsystem parent-child relationship (child) and educational involvement (parent) were introduced to explore their combined effects on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation from a binary perspective. The roles of frustration and sense of meaning in life were also investigated from an integrated motivational-volitional model perspective.

    The current study built a moderated mediation model exploring the combined effects of the parent-child relationship on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. A total of 930 middle school students (501 boys, 429 girls; average age = 15.24 ± 1.66 years) and their parents participated in this investigation. After given their informed consent, both parents and students completed the Short Form of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory, the Four-item Depressive Symptom Index − Suicidality Subscale, the Parent-Child Intimacy Questionnaire, Parental Involvement in Primary School Children Education, the Defeat Scale, and the Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire. SPSS 26.0, AMOS 23.0, and Mplus 7.0 were used to analyze the data.

    The results indicated that: (1) Compared to individuals with a low parent-child relationship and low educational involvement, adolescents with a high parent-child relationship and high educational involvement had lower levels of defeat. Compared to adolescents with a low parent-child relationship and high educational involvement, individuals with a high parent-child relationship and low educational involvement showed lower levels of defeat; (2) Defeat partially mediated the relationship between the parent-child relationship and educational involvement and adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation; (3) The second half of the mediation model was moderated by meaning in life, that is, with the increase of meaning in life, the effect of defeat on depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation gradually decreased.

    Based on ecosystem theory and integrated motivational-volitional model, and using innovative polynomial regression and response surface analysis, the current study investigated the influence of the parent-child relationship and parents' educational involvement on adolescent depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation, as well as the mediating and moderating effects of defeat and meaning in life. The results providing additional evidence for the relevant developmental theories of depression, self-injury, and suicidal ideation. This study also offers more insight into potential psychological crisis behavioral interventions.

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    The effect of the angry emoji position on consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger
    WU Ruijuan, CHEN Jiuqi, LI Yan
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (10): 1133-1145.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.01133
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    Emoji are widely adopted in smartphones, for input methods, and on social networks. As ubiquitous characters, emoji transcend linguistic borders and are gaining worldwide popularity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the position of the angry emoji in negative online consumer reviews on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger. The present study first proposed the main location effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. That is, compared with the angry emoji at the end of a sentence, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of anger. Based on visual information processing of the location effect, the current research proposed that the position salience perception and the sentiment-strengthening perception of the angry emoji serially mediated the above main effect. Further, we hypothesized that word review extremity moderated the effect of the position of the angry emoji on the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger.
    For this paper, we conducted one eye-tracking experiment and three laboratory experiments. In Study 1, we conducted a pretest, which was the eye-tracking experiment. The product used in the pretest was a thermos mug. Study 1 was a 3 (one emoji at the end of a sentence vs. one in the middle of a sentence vs. no emoji) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. The product used in Study 1 was a laptop. Study 2 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (feature description: feature one precedes feature two vs. feature two precedes feature one) between-subjects design. Study 2 used a gel-ink pen refill as the target product. In Study 2, we measured the consumers’ perceptions of the sender’s anger, the angry emoji sentiment-strengthening perception, and the position salience perception created by the angry emoji. Study 3 was a 2 (the position of the angry emoji at the end vs. in the middle of a sentence) × 2 (word review extremity: moderate vs. extreme) between-subjects design. Study 3 used a coat as the target product.
    The results of the pretest demonstrated the effectiveness of visual information processing on the location effect. The position of the angry emoji influenced the participants’ attention. The angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to higher fixation counts and longer fixation durations. The results of Study 1 demonstrated the main effect in this paper, which was that an angry emoji in the middle of a sentence led to a stronger perception of the sender’s anger than did an angry emoji at the end of a sentence. The results of Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 and tested the serial-mediating roles of the position salience perception and the sentiment- strengthening perception of the angry emoji. The results of Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and tested the moderating role of word review extremity in the relationship between the position of the angry emoji and the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger. When we considered the extreme word review, the influence of the position of the angry emoji on the sender’s perception of anger was not significant; however, when we considered the moderate word review, the angry emoji in the middle of a sentence significantly enhanced the consumers’ perception of the sender’s anger.
    The current research extended the extant literature in several dimensions. First, it supplemented the literature in the field of marketing on the effects of the emoji on consumers’ responses. Second, it supplemented the literature of application contexts and the influence of the location effect. Third, the present research provided empirical evidence for emoji functions. Fourth, the present study supplemented the literature of online consumer reviews.

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    Confucian ideal personality traits (Junzi personality) and mental health: The serial mediating roles of self-control and authenticity
    GE Xiaoyu, HOU Yubo
    Acta Psychologica Sinica    2021, 53 (4): 374-386.   DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00374
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    Junzi personality refers to the composite of traits of ideal persons from the viewpoint of Confucian philosophy and is a key to East-Asian indigenous personality studies. Confucius said, “ Junzi is free from worries and fears” and that in such a personality, “to return to the observance of the rites through overcoming the self constitutes benevolence.” Mencius said, “there is no greater delight than to be conscious of authenticity on self-examination” while according to Chengzi, “one who returns to the observance of the rites through overcoming the self for long is authentic.” Based on these classic Confucian propositions and related empirical studies, this paper proposes the hypothesis that aJunzi personality has a positive effect on mental health, in which self-control and authenticity play serial mediating roles.
    To examine the above hypothesis, four studies were conducted. In Study 1 (N= 207), the self-rated questionnaires of Junzipersonality, self-control, authenticity, and mental health were used. Study 2 (N= 425) involved manipulating self-control using the scenario simulation method and looking into its effects on mental health and authenticity. In Study 3 (N= 317), authenticity, which was manipulated using the method of recall priming, was investigated for its effects on mental health. Participants were also asked to recall real-life instances involving a decision that may or may not have involved self-control to support the external validity. In Study 4 (N= 220), participants were subjected to four different tests with 2-month intervals for each that measured Junzi personality, self-control, and authenticity, with the final test measuring self-esteem, core self-evaluation, affect balance, and mental symptoms as overall indicators of mental health.
    Results showed that when measured simultaneously, Junzi personality positively predicted mental health. When measured after 6 months, Junzipersonality also positively predicted self-esteem, core self-evaluation, and affect balance but negatively predicted mental symptoms. Junzi personality positively predicted the trait of self-control and decisions involving self-control, whether in situations provided in the experiment or as were recalled by the participants. Manipulated self-control positively affected both mental health and authenticity while manipulated authenticity positively affected mental health. Results also provided evidence to the serial mediating effect of self-control and authenticity in the positive effect ofJunzi personality on mental health through simultaneous measurement and cross-temporal measurement. In addition, results of experimental manipulation also provided indirect evidence for this.
    This research sought to explore the positive relationship between Junzi personality and mental health and to help in the understanding of the internal mechanism of this relationship. The results are consistent with previous studies on the relationship between personality and mental health, self-control and mental health, and authenticity and mental health. In addition, this paper also discusses the practical value of Junzipersonality and Confucianism in today’s China.

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